Proposition 13 under attack one more time

Thursday

Aug 28, 2014 at 8:25 AMAug 28, 2014 at 8:26 AM

Steve Williams

Once again, the tax and spenders are beating the drums to nullify Proposition 13, the California proposition passed 36 years ago that’s responsible for saving millions of homes from government confiscation.

As those of us around at the time remember, the chances of Proposition 13 becoming law were laughed at by Democrats, chiefly the once and future governor of the state, Jerry Brown, who at the time proposed an alternative measure to Proposition 13, apparently in the hope that it would dilute Proposition 13 support and send it down to defeat.

No such chance. On June 6, 1978, Californians went to the polls and, by a margin of almost two to one, approved the proposition, which cut the property-tax rate from an average of 2.6 percent to 1 percent in every county. It also capped the increase in assessed values to at most 2 percent a year, unless the property was sold. To prevent the resulting revenue loss from being made up with other charges, Proposition 13 also required two-thirds supermajorities in the legislature for any tax hike.

Over the ensuing third of a century, Democrats have labored mightily to have Proposition 13 either revoked or altered so they could boost tax revenues, and have more of the people’s money to waste. To no avail.

Now comes the Los Angeles City Council, which just voted 14-1 to adopt a resolution calling for reform of the commercial side of Proposition 13. An Associated Press news release notes approvingly, we think — that the council “joined 83 other school boards and city councils from around the state calling for increased revenue for schools and public services by reforming the commercial side of Proposition 13.” Yep, they’re using schools again to woo taxpayers into supporting the change. And they’re limiting the proposal to change the commercial evaluation system not for all businesses, but just targeting that old liberal bugaboo, “big business.” The change would require “non-residential commercial properties” to be reassessed regularly while maintaining Proposition 13 protections for residential property and “small business.” How small? It doesn’t say.

Make no mistake, this is camel’s-noseunder- the-tent-flap stuff. If the council and the Democrats get their way, it will be just one more step on the road to total repeal of Proposition 13. We find it hard to believe the millions of property owners in this state will go along. But stranger things have happened.